It is known to clip together baluster modudules to produce a sub-assembly to which is afterwards clipped a top rail.
Certain disadvantages of the above-mentioned system included the need to punch or drill holes in the modules and the need for a continuous top rail. The present invention dispenses with the need for the formation of holes and the absence of a continuous top rail, at least in one embodiment, ensures that the modules before assembly may be packed into a container and transported with ease, or even supplied in the form of a `do-it-yourself` kit for subsequent assembly by amateurs or other persons of limited skill. In one embodiment of the invention, described hereinafter, it is merely necessary to instal eight screws to assemble the outside frame of a balustrade. The remainder of the assembly simply clips together without the use of tools.
The invention is also an improvement in certain other prior known systems including that which is the subject of Commonwealth Specification No. 477,021 by Charles G. Young, wherein the clipping method if dependent upon the formation of a baluster of complex section necessary to admit it to an accepting channel, within which it is turned to wedge it between two inwardly-projecting lips of that channel. This arrangement requires the formation of cuts in opposite sides of each baluster, these cuts being made normal to the co-acting grooves.
Attempts have been made to improve the last-mentioned arrangement by sliding balusters lengthwise into the upwardly-facing mouth of a channel member forming the bottom rail of a balustrade and then sliding a lid or closure strip into a grooved section of the channel before pressing it up against the `downstream` end of a last-assembled baluster, and so on. Such a system has suffered from the disadvantage, however, that a gap always existed beside each baluster which tended to admit water and other foreign matter.